What a strange year! Our theme this year was called "The Hollow." The premise was have you ever traveled down a road just to see where it ends? Well this road ends at an unforgotten village called Spooky Hollow. Once you are there, you must hide from the keepers! If the keepers catch you, you will never escape. The keepers love fresh meat!

We have enjoyed some beautiful weather while watching the artisans create this year's haunt. For the last three weeks we have watched each night as the sun slips over the horizon only to bring the artisans and their creative talents.

One night we were sitting out in the pumpkin patch, this was the first year we had all the pumpkins in one area, looking out at the stars when a black mass emerged. It covered the entire star lit sky. We had no idea what it was. It was coming closer and closer to us. Finally, we realized that the vast black mass were our friends Batsy and Ozzy and all the rest of their batty friends. They took roost in our big Catalpa tree.

A few nights later, again we were sitting in the pumpkin patch, when the ground beneath us began to rumble. Within minutes the tombstones emerged from the ground.

However, the most fun we had was when all of our skeleton friends showed up this year. It has been so long since we had seen them. We spent all night talking with them and catching up on old times.

This brought us to our 1st Annual Light-up Ceremony. We were advised by the artisans to embrace the beautiful weather and begin the haunt season with a light-up ceremony. We were joined by over 200 children of all ages to light up Spooky Hollow. The artisans were jumping for joy that night. What a pleasant night for a party.

But, if it's a party that you want to see, then you do not want to miss this years Haunt! The artisans spent the entire year building the new Mausoleum. They are so excited to see how our guests will respond to it. They have also created several other unique props. This year we welcome three new friends. They do exist! The M&M guys have joined us this year. We also welcome Sammy from the movie Trick-r-Treat. Sammy says that he will reveal his face on Halloween!

This year was a long drawn out year for the artisans. They began work on this year's haunt in January. They built a pumpkin ghoul, that measures 4 feet by 4 feet and weighs nearly 150 pounds! The materials alone on this project cost over $700.00! The artisans also built the M&M guys. Once these guys were displayed, they shortly became the favorite of all who came. Another addition this year was the river of blood! In the daylight, this river seemed gentle. But, once the night fell - the river of blood became ominous. The artisans also got into what is called corpsing. This is when a skeleton is made to look like rotting flesh. Each of these corpsing skeletons took two weeks to complete. The final thing that the artisans added was Sammy. Sammy, from the movie Trick-r-Treat ended up being the scariest creature while lurking in the window.

However, the biggest addition was the mausoleum! This 20 x 22 feet building took nearly 4 months and over $1000.00 to complete. The mausoleum was a complete walk through with rooms dedicated to scare the death into you.

As for the weather this year, well that seemed to be a problem. We had three days of 60 plus miles per hour sustained wind. This reeked havoc on many of the tombstones and props. We were lucky to only have three props broken. As for the rest of the haunt season, we had beautiful weather until Halloween when the temperature dropped.

As far as trouble goes, we had a group of teenagers who tried to break down the doors of the mausoleum while the show was going on. We also had that same group try to destroy things throughout the month.

In the end, we had over 2000 people show up. With 244 people went into the Pit, while 364 people went into the new mausoleum. We hope that next year will be bigger and better! Please join us as we continue to celebrate Halloween like it should be celebrated at Spooky Hollow!

2010

The Hollow

The Pumpkin Ghoul

Created by Gina Rosenquist.

Jack Rosenquist watches over the graveyard at Spooky Hollow Experience.